A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

This pretty caught my eye during that mind-numbing lull between Christmas and New Year.  I was browsing through the beauty stuffs in my local John Lewis, knuckles dragging the ground ‘cos I couldn’t find anything I really wanted, when all of a sudden an angel appeared beside me and thrust this tiny bottle into my hand*.

* this may not have actually happened

Anyway, here’s Mavala Platinum Marble, it’s quite nice no?

I’d describe it as a silvered taupe with a pearl-shimmer finish – it’s heading in the direction of frosty but minus the brushstrokes.  It’s a very pretty work appropriate shade that took three coats to achieve full opacity on my nails.

Currently priced at a bargainous £2.99 over on BeautyBay (I paid £4.10 for this one instore).

What are you wearing on your nails today?

I only received these Mavala/Elle polishes yesterday* but thought I’d better get them swatched and up on here ASAP as many of you were unsure about whether the shades were unique enough to warrant multiple magazine purchases.

Well, they’re standard cremes, no hidden fireworks but they are all formulated beautifully.  Two coats is shown for each swatch below which is impressive when you consider that I didn’t bother with a top coat and they were touch dry within a couple of minutes.

In other words… if you have 100 reds, oranges and greys already, you’re not gonna need these but if you’re looking for fuss-free, handbag-sized backups of some of your most used and ‘go with everything’ shades, you could do far worse than picking them up.  Oh and don’t forget the free magazine (sorry Elle)

.

Elle magazine goes on sale from the 3rd August, cover price is £3.70

* PR sample

Hands up if you remember the last time Elle collaborated with Mavala on an exclusive nail polish?  That would be me, it was pretty unforgettable after all.

Well, they’ve been putting their heads together again and this time have come up with not one, not two… but THREE exclusive polish shades that ELLE will be giving away free with next month’s magazine!

The magazine goes on sale from the 3rd August and I foretell them flying off the shelves quicker than you can get them in your baskets so if any of the shades take your fancy… be quick.

Will you be picking one (or three) up next week?

Be still my beating heart.

It’s perfect.

To celebrate ELLE’s 25th anniversary, the magazine has collaborated with Mavala to bring us a unique Limited Edition nail shade and I’ve been sent a sample to show you.

I die…. I really can’t overestimate just HOW much I love this colour.  Grey meets Purple (Grurple!) in the perfect spot under the raincloud and they do a little dance as the sun goes down.

3 coats to achieve the above finish, although 2 will do for an opaque result.  The third coat covered over a couple of drag marks that developed at the base of the nail.  The finish is glossy and creamy… add a shiny top coat and you’ve got a beautiful glass-like cream that looks perfectly smooth (even on my slightly ridged thumbnail).

Tip wear sets in a little too quickly for my liking, but you know that I’m probably going to forgive it everything because of the shade.

Mavala’s ELLE (£3.95) launches today (1st September 2010) and is exclusive to John Lewis stores.

A few months ago (read 5… yeah, I’m slacking), I started trialling Mavala’s Double Lash that I’d picked up in an effort to improve the condition of my eye lashes which had been breaking and looking a little sparse ever since giving birth to my daughter.

Anyway, how did I get on?

Here’s how my lashes looked back in October:

…and here they were when I finished the trial at the end of December:

I applied Mavala Double Lash every night as directed for around 10 weeks.

They say:

Eye lashes are an essential element of face beauty. Double Lash contains proteins which strengthen, cover and protect the lashes allowing them to become healthy, long and resistant.

It is the natural active ingredients in Double Lash which stimulate growth of the lashes giving them a lovely luxuriant and silky appearance.

I think I see a teeny bit of difference if you use my eyelid crease as a benchmark.  I felt on occasion that my lashes were longer and thicker (particularly when I was wearing mascara) but I just wasn’t convinced that I couldn’t attribute at least some of those feelings to plain wishful thinking.  Unless there’s a significant difference with things like this, I think it’s pretty tricky to judge.

I didn’t experience any irritation using the product, and it literally took seconds to apply each evening.  But, I guess the crux of the trial can be summed up with this simple observation… I haven’t bothered to repurchase it.

Mavala Double Lash is available online priced from around £8.50

Tell me, do you see any differences?

The lovely liloo is in search of a potential nail polish delight.  She’s looking for a wearable (ie. not too bright or shocking) blue-based pink.  Think MAC Snob in a bottle.

I’ve been through my collection and can’t find anything suitable.  This was the nearest.

I picked Mavala Miami up when I raided the Debenhams sale last summer, it is blue based… perhaps not strongly enough to fit in the ‘Snob’ category, but it’s getting there.

As for my polish requirements.  I LOVE it. It’s pink and girly, but stops short of being sugary thanks to it’s definite brightness.  I feel all summery wearing it and I may even have to reapply before moving on to another shade (high praise indeed!).

Application was tremendous.  3 easy, easy coats achieved a perfect finish, but as with a lot of Mavala’s, it doesn’t quite have the high-gloss finish I love, so I added a top-coat to get that glass-like sheen.  Longevity is average, a bit of tip wear towards the end of the 2nd day, but it’s not too noticeable thanks to the forgiving shade.

I’m really pleased I picked this Mavala Miami shade up and I may have to start dragging myself into some more spring/summer-like shades!

Anyone have any nail polish “Snob” suggestions for Liloo?

This is another from Mavala’s recently released Mystic Collection that I was sent last month.

Mavala Black Velvet is a dark purple-black with a very subtle shimmer which unfortunately is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.

There is a great swatch of it over at HeijastusPinta

I’m in two minds about this collection.  So far, I like how they look individually… but now my nails are getting a bit longer, I think they’re a touch vampy for me.  If you have short, well-groomed nails, this would be a great collection for you.

I have two more to show you and I’m gonna hurry them the hell up, because Spring is nearly upon us… and if you give a fig about staying on trend, you might not want to see them ’till next Winter!

You can buy Black Velvet online at Mistrys Pharmacy – £3.95 a bottle.

…On All Lacquered Up’s fantabulous blog.

I submitted my favourite “mannequin hands” polish and got featured – whoop!  Only other sad bastards will know how exciting this is, so if you don’t ‘get it’ – it’s ok, you’re officially cool.

If you do… I’m sorry, there must be a support group out there for us somewhere right?

Mavala Black Cherry is one of the shades I was sent from the upcoming Mystic Collection (available from January).

It’s a rich black shimmer infused with a cherry sparkle that isn’t quite red and isn’t quite purple.  The sparkle is very subtle and you have to be upclose with the polish to truly appreciate how much it lifts the polish from the realms of ‘just another black’.

Mavala Black Cherry is a solid 2-coater with a great formula that glides on without flooding the cuticles or suffering from drag.

Every dark Mavala shade I’ve tried looks positively amazing once the top coat is added.  Love it.

Apologies for the teeny tiny image, I’m gonna see if I can get hold of a bigger one once the holidays are over, but for now, I wanted to show you the Mystic Collection as a whole.  You can see that they’re all black based with varying degrees of coloured shimmer.

I also have Black Velvet (purple infused) and Mosaic Blue (blue infused) to swatch for you.  I’m ridiculously excited about Black Velvet which, in the bottle looks divine.

You can purchase Mavala polishes online from FeelUnique and GreenHands, they generally retail for around £3.75 for a 5ml bottle.

Do you like or are you getting tired of the dark shades? I must admit that I’m looking forward to Spring, although I don’t know why as I’m not sold on the pastelly shades that inevitably feature heavily in Spring collections.

I’m on eBay hunting down some of the Mavala Diamond collection from AW 09/10… I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve gone a little glitter crazy!

Since having Leila, I’ve noticed that my eyeslashes have been breaking more often and generally looking a bit sparser than normal.

I’m not in the market for lash growth solutions like li-lash and revitalash, but I do want something that promises to keep them in tip top condition.

Enter Mavala Double Lash:

They say:

Double Lash contains proteins which strengthen, cover and protect the lashes allowing them to become healthy, long and resistant.

To be fair, I’m not holding out much hope, I’m sure it has all to do with post-pregnancy hormones and no amount of proteins is going to alter that.  However, Double Lash is inexpensive and I figured it can’t hurt to try right?

The bottle is huge! It would take me a year to get through that much product!  I’m going to apply it to my lashes (and brows) every night before bed and see if there’s any differences to be seen in 30 days time.

Here’s the obligatory “before” shots:

Mavala Double Lash is available online from FeelUnique priced at £8.25

You already know by now that I’m a big fan of Mavala polishes and further to my post a few weeks ago on Mavala’s “Ruby” polish, I was sent the remaining 2 colours of Mavala’s Autumn/Winter collection for review. 

The collection is called Viva La Colour!  – a brave slap in the face to the usual Autumn/Winter collections showing up around now.

The first shade I want to show you is “Liberty”, an elegant soft nude.

This is a sheer, but it builds up opacity quite nicely thanks to Mavala’s reliable formula which never fails to please me.  The above is a total of 4 thin coats, a little more than I would prefer to apply – but it’s not a chore thanks to the smooth application.  If you did want to wear this sheer, it would be a lovely shade to compliment a french manicure… as for me, I don’t do sheers – so I’m glad I was able to build up the opacity, especially on such a lovely work-appropriate nude.  Work-appropriate nude? An oxymoron if ever I heard one!

Before I continue, I have to tell you that  “Viva La Colour!” is a collection of mattes.  Which probably goes some way to explain why I wasn’t delighted with the finish of the Ruby shade I tried earlier this month.

To be blunt, I don’t regard this collection as matte.  We’ve all seen the mattes on offer this season from the likes of O.P.I, Zoya and Nubar… I’m not a fan, but regardless of my personal taste, these ‘matte’ offerings from Mavala just aren’t… well, matte.  Semi-matte perhaps, but they’re definitely still fairly glossy.  This might be the ideal compromise for you if you’re a little too conservative to rush headlong into the new trend.

For me, this finish just misses – I get a non-commital vibe from the collection which is a shame, but as I’m about to demonstrate… easily remedied by a swipe of your favourite top coat.

Introducing Tokyo, the final shade in the trio.  It’s a beautiful deep dark blue with more than just a hint of purple on display.  Lovely colour, shame about that finish.

But wait… 1 top coat later…

Oh my!… Hello lover!  You’re beautiful in all your ultra glossy loveliness.  You remind me of Cadbury’s chocolate wrappers.  You make me feel all dark, mysterious and sophisticated – quite an achievement!

So, to sum up… if you’re into your mattes, I’d steer clear of this collection.

If you just want some gorgeous Autumn/Winter nail styling that’s bang on trend, a dream to apply and beautifully finished (with a top coat – ahem) – then look no further.

The collection is available from Greenhands and priced @ £3.75 each

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’m off to stuff my face on Dairy Milk.

[starreview tpl=14]

Further to my post on the Debenhams sale, I nabbed a few colours.

Hello lovelies!  There’s 4 absolute stand out shades for me in this little lot, namely:

Sweety (Bubblegum Pink)
Velvet (Warm Taupe)
Lyric (Off-White v.pale coffee shade)
Miami (Dusky pink with lilac flashes)

Hmm, I think you can probably expect some NOTD posts coming up!